Notes on Grace
Every year, I wait for September with both impatience and open arms, only to be bitterly disappointed. At least as cold as August, and often twice as windy, September is kinda like the guy who looks great on paper but ends up letting you down pretty much immediately.
On first approach, the word Grace may pull up associations with elegance and ballet, finishing school and table manners and knowing how to use an extravagant line up of cutlery, if and when it happens to appear beside your plate.
But, despite a pop culture reference that quickly springs to surface when I think of the word (image below), I find Grace to be an inspiring and soothing practice, something to move, gradually in the direction of embodying, as life throws us to and fro.
Grace is not rising above emotion, eliminating turbulence from our lives, or beating ourselves up when we hurry, rush, stumble and fall. Grace is the space between reaction and response. Grace is having a shit day but knowing that’s all it is, and not taking everyone who crosses our path deep into the misery with us.
Grace is allowing emotion to take you under, then coming up for air and breathing deeply. Grace is floating on the surface, without worrying about the next wave, even though, you know, eventually, it will come.
It is Grace that allows us to admit when we’re wrong. It is Grace we embody when we make a mistake, and simply move on.
It is Grace that allows us to open up and receive. To be well and truly moved, in all directions, by life, but still in awe of the miracle of even being here at all.
Grace is grace not because of aesthetic beauty or dainty-ness or having not a single hair out of place (if it is, I literally, never stand a chance).
Grace is grace because it is unhurried. Grace is considered. Grace is aware and slow. You cannot have road rage with Grace. You cannot be a sore loser with Grace. When we are disappointed by the weather, by another person, by the result of something we’ve been counting on, it is Grace that lights the soft spark of hope. It is Grace that whispers softly: don’t worry, the best is yet to come.
This month in the studio we will navigate the rapidly changing seasons of the world around us, alongside the ever changing seasons within, with a leaning toward cultivating the sweet energy of Grace.
I can’t wait to see you there.
Emmie xo